Tess se sienta

Question

Hi,
In a children's book about 2 dogs it reads:
**Bess salto.
Tess se sienta.
Bess se moja.
Tess se queda seca.
**

Why do some of these verbs have "se" before them'

Answer 1

I find it amazing (not your fault) that the all-important SE in Spanish is never taught, except for very advanced students, because no native can say more than four or five sentences without using at least one of them, and I am not referring to the reflexive SE.

First of all, the first one is wrong; it should be "salta".

Now, the third one is the easiest to explain, because in removing SE from that sentence would result in an incorrect sentence both in Spanish and English. "Mojar" means to wet, as in "Wet a cloth", so the sentence without SE would be "Bess moja" (Bess wets). Wets? Wets what? Add SE, and "se moja" suddenly means "gets wet". The effect of this SE is to change a verb that normally require something to wet (e.g. a cloth), into a verb that requires nothing to wet, because it is the subject that gets wet.

Apply the same logic to the second one: "sentar" is "to sit (someone somewhere)"; unlike in English, you need a person on a place, as in "I sat him (down) on the chair". If you don't say who do you seat, the sentence is as incomplete as "I wet", and it leaves you with the question "Sit... whom'" (yes, I know, in English "sit" alone is fine, but Spanish is more annoyingly consistent in these cases). If you don't require someone to sit down on place, use SE and the subject will simply sit/get seated.

The third one is more difficult to explain, but removing SE would result in a rather literary sentence that people rarely use in normal speech, and certainly not with children.

Answer 2

Yes, I had a typo, the first one should have read salta. I agree with you, in English "I sit" is perfectly fine. So is there a list of verbs that NEED "se", or do I have to learn them along the way. Do any of the lessons on this site address this? And yes, I am still a beginner.

Answer 3

I find it amazing (not your fault) that the all-important SE in Spanish is never taught, except for very advanced students, because no native can say more than four or five sentences without using at least one of them, and I am not referring to the reflexive SE.

I suspect the 'se' is not taught to beginner students because it is, in fact, an advanced topic. To English speakers, most sentences with 'se' make perfect sense without it. The most difficult words to learn in a language are the ones without meaning (that is, those which only exist because of grammar, not because of semantics)

Answer 4

To English speakers, most sentences most sentences with 'se' make perfect sense without it.

Exactly! That's why they should be taught SE from the very beginning, in lesson one, as soon as they learn "Me llamo...".

So is there a list of verbs that NEED "se", or do I have to learn them along the way.

A list? Mmmmm, my personal list has over 7000 verbs (and only 1000-2000 are required to speak fluent Spanish). Actually, there are very few verbs that don't take SE under certain circumstances, and nearly no resources of any kind designed to cover this huge gap in the learning of Spanish.

There are certain verbs for which you have to memorize how to use SE, but hundreds of them where the use of this SE is predictable.

For example, with many verbs (especially verbs of motion), the subject of the sentence does something to certain objects, e.g.

Mover - to move (something)
Abrir - to open (something)
Cerrar - to close (something)
Romper - to break (something)

In all of them, the subject must have something to act on. Now, if you use these actions with inanimate objects as subjects, objects don't move things, don't open things, don't close things and don't break things, so you don't require anything to move, break,... Use SE, and you can make sentences like "Something moves/breaks/open/...". In English, you just don't mention anything to move/open/..., but in Spanish they are wrong unless you use SE, exactly as if you said "I wet" in English instead of "I get wet"; in English you use "get" sometimes, and in Spanish we use SE virtually every time.

Answer 5

I should have known there wouldn't be a list. Gee, if I know about 50-100 verbs, I am about 5% towards fluency. LOL! I guess I will just keep plugging along on the lessons. Thanks.

Answer 6

Tonya, if you are interested, have a look at this

compiled tutorials by Lazarus

One of the topics he published to help learners is on "se".